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War takes its toll on civilian mental health

It is not just soldiers who suffer during wartime, and nor are the injuries confined to the battlefield.

Elie Karam of the Institute for Development, Research, Advocacy and Applied Care in Beirut, Lebanon, and colleagues measured the effects of war on the mental health of 2857 Lebanese civilians. They found that 70 per cent of respondents to their survey had been exposed to traumatic events related to the country’s ongoing conflict, including living in a war zone or being a refugee.

Those exposed to conflict were six times as likely to have an anxiety disorder, three times as likely to …